Letters to the Editor

Stella Davis deserves to be re-elected as District 4 Eddy County Commissioner in this year's primary and general elections. She's smart, tough, and focused on constituent needs. I saw her work up close when I served with her.

Before Stella took office I admired her top-notch reporting. The citizens of Eddy County trusted her solid coverage of issues that came before municipal and county officials. She always told it straight.

Once elected, Stella was up to speed, and never flinched. She studies Eddy County resources, needs, and options. She votes to balance these concerns.

Stella never waffles. She has the courage to do what she believes to be the right thing. Lobbying and bullying by special interests does not rattle her.

Another important quality about Commissioner Davis is her position as a board member on the National Association of Counties. She networks with commissioners from other states to work to solve Eddy County issues and fight national issues that are unwarranted and onerous.

Davis is the only choice for District 4 in Carlsbad.

Royce Pearson

Former Eddy County Commissioner

No to nuclear

After traveling and living for most of fifty years in New Mexico I decided eleven years ago to retire in Carlsbad. I love this place!

It angers me to think that the Carlsbad area is being seriously considered as a site for the “temporary” storage of spent fuel rods. How long is temporary? Twenty years, fifty years, and who will move it? If this is just a temporary repository why not place it in the permanent facility now?

The specs for the storage vaults for the rods, which are still highly radioactive, are impressive. However, in spite of man’s best attempts to insure safety, leaks happen.

Even a small leak would endanger the health and lives of all living things in this area as well as the adjoining areas in Texas.

Transporting this material by rail is a disaster waiting to happen. The entire area through which the trains carrying this material will travel puts the population along that route at great danger should a train wreck occur. Accidents do happen.

Use New Mexico as the nation’s nuclear fuel dump? No! No! No!

Rev. Martha A. Singleterry, Pastor

St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church

On the NRC scoping hearing

Residents of Carlsbad and the surrounding area are facing a critical and irreversible choice. On May 3, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will hold a scoping hearing at the Eddy County Fire Service building at 1400 Commerce Street. At that hearing the NRC will receive comments from residents regarding the plan to place radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods in a surface storage unit near the Eddy and Lea County line east of Carlsbad. The hearing will take place between 7 and 10 p.m.

The May 3 hearing may be the only chance people will have to voice either their approval, or their disapproval, to a plan to create a nuclear waste dump of materials that are now kept in cooling tanks near nuclear reactors from across the nation. Many are not aware of this proposal because it has not been widely publicized. The proposal involves moving 100,000 tons of radioactive materials by rail or other means to our area.

May 3 is our opportunity as residents in the area to have our voices heard. Please come and speak up or submit written statements to the NRC regarding this important decision.